Feel good update: 26 new endorsements + the best & quickest way to fight climate change…
Good morning and happy Democratic debates week! (What a time to be alive.) Meet the future leaders of our party…
Good morning and happy Democratic debates week! (What a time to be alive.)
While all the media attention will be on the presidential candidates, let me introduce you to 26 of the present-and-future leaders of our party: The newest Run for Something endorsed candidates. They include:
Anna Payne, a candidate for Middletown Township Supervisor — she’s been living with cystic fibrosis, works as a member of the Pennsylvania Rare Diseases Advisory Board, and is fighting for health care.
Tia Walbridge, a sheep farmer and agricultural advocate who’s running to protect Loudoun County’s active green spaces in Virginia.
Nathan Dominguez, a student at Newton High School who’s running for school board looking to address anti-discrimination and bullying policies.
Gicola Lane, an organizer who recently led the successful charter referendum to create Nashville’s first Community Oversight Board and is now running for Nashville Metro Council At-Large.
We also have 7 candidates in contested primaries tomorrow across New York state — can’t wait to see how they do.
In alumni news…
The Nation talked to PA state legislator Sara Innamorato on what it was like to run a different kind of campaign and take on a machine incumbent — and about how she keeps up the conversation with Trump voters, even as a democratic socialist.
In Oklahoma City, councilwoman JoBeth Hamon is taking action to mitigate “the justice system’s tendency to criminalize poverty.”
Adam Baldazua hasn’t even officially taken office yet as a Dallas City Councilmember and he’s already impressing his community by showing up and doing the work.
Our alum in Pennsylvania are beating the drum on doing something about the student debt crisis. Check out this great op-ed by Sens. Katie Muth and Lindsey Williams (and non-alum-but-still-great Vincent WIlliams) on why their PA HELP Act — which would help nearly 30k students save tens of thousands of dollars — is critical.
Monique Diaz unseated a Republican judge in San Antonio — now she’s taken her seat on the 150th District Court. Hear her story.
Sheriff Dave Hutchinson has made a powerful first impression in Minnesota: “During the first six months in office, he let employees wear more facial hair and exposed tattoos, advocated for driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants and began treating jail inmates with opioid disorders.”
Judge Lina Hidalgo!
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo — one of the most powerful women in Texas — explains to Elle Magazine how she ran for office and what it’s been like so far.
By taking out the IDC in New York last year, Sens. Jessica Ramos, Alessandra Biaggi, and Zellnor Myrie (along with red-to-blue flip Andrew Gounardes) have brought a progressive takeover to Albany. 12 ways they’re transforming New York, from sexual harrassment laws to climate change to voting rights expansion and more.
Some related reading you might find interesting:
This WNYC podcast explains: In order to understand how the wave of abortion bans came to be, you have to understand gerrymandering.
Vox: “In passing bold climate legislation, New York will follow in the footsteps of Maine, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, New Mexico, California, and New Jersey, all of which have passed substantive clean energy policies in the past year or so. (Hawaii has had its 100 percent renewables target in place since 2015.) And New York accomplished this feat the exact same way all those other states did it: by electing overwhelming Democratic majorities.”
Speaking of Oregon — you have to follow this story in which GOP state senators have literally fleed the state in order to delay a vote on a climate change bill.
When women and people of color are on the ballot, they win at the same rates as men. Hell yeah. We just have to get more of them on the ballot in the first place.
Finally, last call: I’ll be in Boston tomorrow night with Boston City Councilor Michelle Wu and state Senator Eric Lesser. RSVP now.
Thanks for making all this possible. We’re keeping our collective foot on the gas all summer long because of your support.